Flowr, Hawthorne Canada Complete Cannabis Research, Development Facility
North America’s first research and development facility dedicated to advancing cannabis cultivation techniques and systems has been completed by The Flowr Corporation and Hawthorne Canada Limited, a subsidiary of the Hawthorne Gardening Company division of The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. Scotts Miracle-Gro is the world’s leading marketer of branded consumer lawn and garden products and indoor growing solutions.
Located on Flowr’s cultivation campus in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, the research and development (R&D) center includes laboratories, indoor grow suites and training areas in a single building. Flowr will test cultivation systems and techniques using Hawthorne’s advanced lighting, fertilization and irrigation systems, growing mediums and research protocols. In addition, Flowr intends to focus its own research on cannabis plant genetics and integrated growing systems in line with its goal of delivering premium quality cannabis products through highly efficient cultivation.
“We built Hawthorne to help cultivators of all sizes grow quality plants with high levels of efficiency and consistency,” said Chris Hagedorn, SVP & General Manager of Hawthorne Gardening. “Completing the industry’s only dedicated R&D facility gives us a distinct advantage. We will leverage Flowr’s cultivation expertise and our technical capabilities into real-world testing and results that will make a difference to growers.”
The R&D Center is the centerpiece of a strategic R&D partnership formed by Flowr and Hawthorne in March 2018. The R&D Center brings two of the world’s leading experts together to be at the forefront of cannabis cultivation. Operations will be led by Dr. Deron Caplan, the first person in North America to earn a Ph.D. focused on cannabis cultivation and production. Dr. Caplan was awarded his doctorate by the University of Guelph in August 2018 and is Flowr’s director of research and development. The R&D Center will be staffed by Flowr’s scientists, five of whom have Ph.D.s in various plant biology, plant genetics and plant biochemistry disciplines. Hawthorne R&D will lead the research design and methodology.
All requisite licensing from Health Canada has been obtained by Flowr and the expectation is that the R&D Center will be operating in full capacity Spring 2021. Research has already begun conducting growing trials at scale using Hawthorne products.
